Jeff Bezos got his phone hacked, perhaps by Saudi Arabia. But that might be the least of his problems.

Amazon is facing a host of calls from both Republicans and Democrats for stricter regulation of the company and perhaps an antitrust investigation.

The company is embroiled in a legal battle against the United States after the Trump administration passed over Amazon Web Services for a $10 billion cloud computing contract called JEDI.

And Amazon’s holiday season was shortened by a later-than-usual Thanksgiving. It’s expected to post relatively lackluster fourth-quarter earnings growth.

https://wraltechwire.com/2020/01/23/un-links-saudi-prince-to-hacking-of-jeff-bezos-phone-using-whatsapp/

Wall Street analysts expect Amazon’s sales to have grown 17% last quarter, according to a survey by Refinitiv. That’d be good for most companies, but far less than the 35% average growth Amazon posted over the past four years in the holiday quarter.

Despite Amazon’s strong online sales during the holidays, some analysts remain concerned that the overall quarter might have been lighter than usual (See: Target’s considerably worse-than-expected holiday quarter.)

Profit growth from Amazon’s enormous cloud operation has also slowed. “Meh” earnings for Amazon would cap off a particularly bad stretch for the company.

Microsoft’s victory (for now, anyway, pending a trial) in attaining the JEDI contract puts the company “in the catbird’s seat to get more of these complex workloads” in the future, according to Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Who’s the world’s richest person? Jeff Bezos still the champ

Meanwhile, the bad news continues to pile up for Bezos & Co.

“We expect the antitrust rhetoric to reach deafening levels during this Presidential election year, while Amazon’s relationship with the White House remains the most precarious within Big Tech,” said Brian White, internet and software analyst at Moness Crespi Hardt in a note to investors this week.